Vaccines’ impact on pandemic could come as early as April, says boss of Shanghai Fosun’s German partner BioNTech
- The world could start to see the effect of vaccinations on pandemic by the second quarter, says CEO of German drug maker BioNTech
- The company, which is based in Mainz, Germany, has partnered with Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical to bring its candidate to China
But collective efforts from vaccine developers, scientists and the media will be needed to inform vaccine sceptics to support higher take-up rates, said Ugur Sahin, co-founder and CEO of BioNTech. The company, which is based in Mainz, Germany, has partnered with Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical to bring its candidate to China.
“If we have positive clinical data that are considered to be sufficient by regulators, our vaccine could be made available under emergency use authorisation, at least for certain regions,” he told the South China Morning Post.
“2021 will be a year when we will learn how fast vaccines will be made available, [which will] require collaboration and close alignment among governments, companies and logistics providers … we might see the first effects of such vaccinations as soon as in the second quarter.”
BioNTech has partnered with the US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to develop a vaccine for international markets outside China. They are conducting a late-stage global clinical trial with around 38,000 participants in over 120 centres.
Early data from various trials of the candidate have been submitted to American, European and Canadian regulators, and more will be submitted in coming weeks.
The first efficacy data “read-out” from the BioNTech-Pfizer trial could be available later this month, if the vaccine’s benefits can be demonstrated objectively.
Data on the first 32 participants who have been infected by the virus will be studied in the first read-out. If 26 or more of them belong to the control group, with six or less who actually received the vaccine, it would be the first sign of efficacy with statistical significance.
